The well-being and work-related stress of senior school leaders in Wales and Northern Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional descriptive study

The COVID-19 pandemic caused far-reaching societal changes, including significant educational impacts, affecting over 1.6 billion pupils and 100 million education practitioners globally. Senior school leaders were at the forefront; an occupation already reporting high work-related stress and large numbers leaving the profession preceding COVID-19, leaders were exposed to high demands relating to the numerous challenges they had to manage during a “ crisis leadership ” period. This cross-sectional descriptive study through the international COVID-HL network aimed to examine the well-being and work-related stress of senior school leaders (n=323) in Wales (n=172) and Northern Ireland (n=151) during COVID-19 (2021-2022). Findings suggest that senior school leaders reported high workloads (54.22±11.30 hours/week), low well-being (65.2% n=202, mean WHO-5 40.85±21.57), depressive symptoms (WHO-5 34.8% n=108) and high work-related stress (PSS-10: 29.91±4.92). High exhaustion (BAT: high/very high 89.0% n=285) and specific psychosomatic complaints (experiencing muscle pain 48.2% n=151) were also reported, and females had statistically higher outcomes in these areas. School leaders were engaging in self-endangering working behaviours; 74.7% (n=239) gave up leisure activities in favour of work and 63.4% (n=202) sacrificed sufficient sleep, which was statistically higher for females. These findings are concerning given that the UK is currently experiencing a “ crisis ” in educational leadership against a backdrop of pandemic-related pressures. Senior leaders’ high attrition rates further exacerbate this, proving costly to educational systems and placing additional financial and other pressures on educational settings and policy response. This has implications for senior leaders and pupil-level outcomes including health, well-being and educational attainment, requiring urgent tailored and targeted support from the education and health sectors. This is particularly pertinent for Wales and Northern Ireland as devolved nations in the UK, who are both implementing or contemplating major education system level reforms, including new statutory national curricula, requiring significant leadership, engagement and ownership from the education profession. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded EM (grant number: ES/W007045/1) and the development of the HAPPEN network (grant number: ES/J500197/1) which this research was conducted through (). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: This study received ethical approval from the Swansea University Medical School Research Ethics Committee (approval number: 2021-0043). All participants were required to provide written informed consent to participate in the study. Participants in Northern Ireland were made aware that due to the anonymous nature of the survey, they were not able to withdraw their data after pressing submit. For Wales, personal data (name and school) were collected for the purposes of data linkage, and participants were informed of their right to withdraw. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes Data cannot be shared publicly because of ethical requirements regarding confidentiality, for which participants did not consent to. Data are available from the Swansea University Medical School Research Ethics Committee (contact via FMHLS-Ethics@swansea.ac.uk) for researchers who meet the criteria for access to confidential data.